PARENTAGE. 45 



animal. Another analogy is found in the development 

 of the embryo. As the tadpole is first a fish, and then 

 a tailed amphibian with lungs and gills, before it be- 

 comes a frog, so they deem that the history of the 

 embryo recapitulates the transformations of the species. 

 This sort of theorizing has given rise to numerous efforts 

 to arrange the family tree of each species a branch of 

 biological speculation termed Phytogeny and examples 

 of it may be found in Darwin, Haeckel, etc. Mr. Hux- 

 ley, although a believer in Evolution, declares that such 

 summaries of descent are little better than guess-work.* 

 9. Many instances of complicate and perfect structure 

 occur both in the vegetable and animal kingdoms which 

 have no similar structure preceding nor following them. 

 No scheme of evolution, nor survival of the fittest, can 

 account for them. The mechanism of the leaf of Venus's 

 fly-trap, and of Nepenthes, the nettling threads of Hy- 

 droid polyps, and the peculiar disk-like hairs on the 

 thigh of the male water-beetle, (Dytiscus marginalis,) are 

 a few out of almost numberless instances of this fact. 

 The most perfect dental apparatus in the animal king- 

 dom, the teeth of Echinus, called Aristotle's lantern, is 

 also the first to appear, if we trace animal life from its 

 simplest forms, and there is nothing like it elsewhere. 

 Like Melchizedek among priests, it has no predecessor 

 and no successor. Its form and arrangement are a pro- 

 test against the theories of material development. In 

 the Rotifer, again, the typical form and structure of the 

 teeth are entirely different, being an anvil and two ham- 

 mers. In the Gasteropods they are spiny tongues. 



* "Anatomy of Invertebrated Animals." 



